New Article in “Gender Issues”

Nadine Segadlo and I have published a paper titled Surviving Exile: Queer Displaced People’s Lived Experiences of Aid, Risks, and Coping in Kakuma in Gender Issues. In this open-access article, we explore how queer individuals navigate the humanitarian aid system in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, the risks they encounter, and the strategies they use to cope with the challenges of daily life.

Abstract: This paper examines the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ displaced individuals in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Drawing on situated knowledge and relational agency, it delves into how queer people experience the humanitarian-aid system on-site, what risks they encounter, and how they exert agency to cope with the prevalent challenges of day to day life. Findings reveal that, in a country context where same-sex relations are illegalized and queer people criminalized, those displaced face heightened risks. They are confronted with the heteronormative paradigms inherent to the humanitarian-aid system, ones resulting in their neglect and denied access to much-needed assistance and protection. Structural and physical violence such as discrimination, exclusion, harassment and threats of murder exacerbate unrelenting fears and tangible risks in the camp. To navigate these challenges, they employ diverse individual and especially collective coping strategies, creating safe spaces for mutual support, exchange and hope.

Krause, Ulrike and Segadlo, Nadine (2024), ‘Surviving Exile. LGBTQ+ Displaced People’s Lived Experiences of Aid, Risks, and Coping in Kakuma’, Gender Issues, 41, article 26.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-024-09344-6

Contributions to Research Handbook

The Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy, edited by Jane Freedman and Glenda Santana de Andrade, has been published. Huge congratulations to Jane and Glenda for leading the way and bringing the handbook together! I am very grateful to be part of this important volume and have contributed two chapters co-authored with Jay Ramasubramanyam and Rose Jaji.

Our chapters are:

• Ramasubramanyam, Jay and Krause, Ulrike (2024), ‘Need for Critical Reimagination: Colonial Legacy of the 1951 Refugee Convention’, in Jane Freedman and Glenda Santana de Andrade (eds.), Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing), 39-51. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204599.00010
• Jaji, Rose and Krause, Ulrike (2024), ‘Exclusionary Refugee Protection Regime, Colonial Others, and Gender Dualities’, in Jane Freedman and Glenda Santana de Andrade (eds.), Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing), 280-290. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204599.00028

For further information on the handbook, see https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/research-handbook-on-asylum-and-refugee-policy-9781802204582.html and https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook/book/9781802204599/9781802204599.xml

New Publication

The article entitled “Invisibilization of the Unwanted Others? Feminist, Queer, and Postcolonial Perspectives on the 1951 Refugee Convention’s Drafting” has recently been published in the Women’s Studies International Forum. It is available Open Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2024.102979

Abstract: The 1951 Refugee Convention represents the legal cornerstone of today’s global refugee protection, which is supposed to apply to all refugees regardless of their origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation. But did the Convention’s drafters have such a complex approach in mind? This paper analyzes the Convention’s drafting at the United Nations and the final conference in the late 1940s and early 1950s from feminist, queer, and postcolonial perspectives. By drawing on subalternity and absence, and using interpretive analysis of historical sources, the paper focuses on politics—who was (not) involved in debates—and policy—who was (not) considered under the refugee definition. The analysis reveals pervasive asymmetries, with western androcentrism inherently shaping the drafting. The western, white, heterosexual man was the standard filter for the powerful decision-maker and the protection subject, whereas women, LGBTQ+ and colonized people were neglected in politics and policy. Their exclusion was not merely a side effect of the political landscape at the time but reflects the reproduction of western androcentric power, which ultimately invisibilized the subaltern Others in the creation of international refugee law.

Krause, Ulrike (2024), ‘Invisibilization of the Unwanted Others? Feminist, Queer, and Postcolonial Perspectives on the 1951 Refugee Convention’s Drafting’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 107, 102979, Link.